Remstar Auto M Series "Service Required"

[Nate92taylor]

Brother you just saved me buying a new one! I took it apart check connections air duster, found this forum and boom I’m breathing again ??? I owe ya a coffee

[BSGK1897]

Hi everyone,

So I’ve used the power button trick for the past year and it worked. Today the machine was accidentally unplugged and now the trick no longer works. 

I’ve taken it apart and tried blowing it out and that did not help either. I’m pretty desperate at this point. I am not able to sleep without it and my doctors office has had trouble scheduling me with a new sleep study.

Any help appreciated. Thanks.

[Sleepster]

See if you can buy a machine on craigslist.

[Nate92taylor]

I had the same problem, I would unplug the ballast unplug the main power re plug it all in then when you do the power truck hold the power button until it starts blinking again then do the disconnect reconnect (p.s I also may have punched it a few times ? hope this works

[Sleeprider]

I recently got the "Motor Life Exceeded" on my Resmed unit, but I fortunately have a standby from Craigslist a few years ago. A limited lifetime is something we have to deal with for our CPAPs and pets. You need a new machine. There are several ways to find what you need, and all of them are going to be better than the M-series. What part of the country are you from? Maybe we can help you find one until you can get insurance to cover a new one.

[JohnH6]

I have the REMStar Plus M Series w/heated humidifier dom (mfg. 2005 or 2006).
I tried the power button trick. Holding it for a count of 1, 2 seconds did not work for me. Tried this several times.
However, I tried a fourth time and held the button for 1, maybe 2 minutes and it worked!
I was dreading going thru another sleep study to get another one.

[Sleeprider]

John, if you have the results of your original sleep study, you may not need another study. If you don't use insurance or medicare you absolutely won't need one. Even if you don't have your original prescription, you could ask your current primary doctor to issue a new Rx for auto CPAP, and that would get you a new device at any DME. The Remstar Auto M Series was my first CPAP. I can't imagine having to use such an old device. If you want to update or upgrade, start a thread and we can talk about it.

[TechGuy]

I do not have much experience with Philips CPAP machines, but I like them, so a fellow doctor asked me if I can help him with his REMstar Auto A-Flex M-series BiPAP (model# 511M), which showed a warning triangle with an exclamation mark and refused to start. I noticed that pressing the arrow buttons suspends the warning alarm for the next restart and the machine works fine, but after power cycling the machine the dreaded triangle appears again, so again I had to press some keys first to stop beeping, then power cycle the machine to show the normal startup screen. I tried the suggestions in this thread and also cleaned the airflow sensor by blowing air through it, but the error warning didn't disappear. I couldn't do the power button trick (pressing the power button had no effect) so I opened the machine and found that the 3V 2032 lithium battery has drained down to 2.3V. I replaced it with a new battery and again tried to clear the error by pressing and holding buttons (as per the service manual for the previous generation of REMstar machines, which I found on the Internet), but again the error did not clear.

As I read in the service manual for the older machines, they support many manual settings from the keyboard: you can set the clock, do service calibration, etc, without any service software. But from this generation on, Philips has started to use service software for all service settings required when repairing the machines. (I will be very happy if someone can help and supply me with the service software, but I know these machines are old and the software may be gone with the years, so now even DMEs may not have it.)

As the original battery was drained I didn't know if the error is due to unset RTC clock, or any other settings need to be made by the service software, or maybe the monitoring system in the machine doesn't like how it works. I put a cap at the air outlet with a small hole (to simulate the mask) and left the machine on to work for 3 days and it seemed to be working fine.

Finally I gave up and removed the 2032 battery, so the machine can not remember any saved errors. It stopped displaying the warning triangle after restart and I gave it back to the doctor, telling him that the machine seems to be working fine, but he better should ask around to find a Philips technician, who has the service software to prove that. This happened some three weeks ago, so I haven't heard from him since then, but I still wonder about this machine. I think the doctor keeps using it flawlessly, but I'll be happy if someone experienced with repairing the M-series comment on this.

About removing the battery: you don't have to desolder it from the sensor board, like I did. You just have to remove a small jumper, located near the battery to cut the power from it. But do this only if the battery has sufficiently drained out and the RTC has lost power anyway, because you probably do not have the software to set the clock. Also if you have such a machine with still not too drained lithium battery, which you will need to replace, you could try first to disassemble the machine and remove the sensor board. (The sensor board is removed together with the whole air duct assembly, which is detached by pushing a needle in a small hole above the humidifier power connector on the back of the machine). Then reconnect the sensor board and plug in the power adapter to power the RTC chip while desoldering the old one and soldering the new battery. This way the RTC chip will not be left without power, so afterwards will not need to be set by the service software. The same applies to other machines as well, but you need to be more careful to not make a short circuit while doing the job.

I think in this machine Philips used some Microchip's PIC MCU, programmed as a RTC-clock - so it needs at least 2.5 volts to work.

And just to clarify, (because I saw discussion on that in other threads too): The lithium battery is not soldered to the PCB by the evil manufacturers as a plot against a few forum users who like to thinker and replace their batteries themselves. The 2032 battery clips often suffer from really bad contact problems and these batteries last 7-10 years or more. It's a thousand times better to solder them to the PCB than to compromise the system's reliability in the long run. If you need to replace such a battery and can not do the soldering yourself, probably you can find a nearby TV-repair technician to do the soldering job for you.